Sofia's Incumbent Mayor Promises Not to Promise Too Much

Yordanka Fandakova, Mayor of the Bulgarian capital Sofia and top runner for a second term, has vowed she would not bombard voters with "tons of promises" if she gets reelected.

Instead, Fandakova and her team would focus on concrete measures and policies over the next four years, she has claimed while presenting a summary on her term in offie.

Fandakova declared that she has been a successful Mayor during the last two years. She pointed out that the capital's largest projects financed with EU funds - the Sofia subway - has reached an advanced stage

Currently, three subway sections including 13 km of tunnels and 13 stations are being constucted, she informed. Besides, over EUR 500 M for other projects has been secured, according to the Mayor.

The fact that citizens now have free access to some 70 decares of the capital's Military Academy park has also been mentioned by Fandakova as a success.

She has further reminded that the monopolistic situation in Sofia's cleaning has been broken.

Upon asked to comment the recent alleged bribery scandal involving presidential runnerRosen Plevneliev, endorsed by her centrist-right GERB party, as well as three municipal councilmen, Fandakova said she has nothing to do with the case, since she was merely a deputy mayor in charge of education and culture back in 2007.

The scandal was provoked by last Friday's unexpected statement on behalf of GERB's vice-chair and Bulgarian Minister of Interior Tsvetan Tsvetanov that back in 2007 Plevneliev turned down a bribery attempt at Sofia Municpality, but failed to report it to authorities.

The local elections in Bulgaria are scheduled for October, 23, the same day the country's presidential vote is to take place. Fandakova has been widely tipped to win the race for the capital.